OK, it’s a trick question. Gov. Phil Murphy said it recently, but the real answer is “every governor,” or more precisely, every governor whose immediate predecessor represented a different party. The words may not always have been exactly the same, but the sentiment is universal, meant to excuse virtually every financial shortcoming of a new regime.

Former Gov. Chris Christie repeatedly fell back on that crutch for eight years. He was quick to deflect any would-be blame onto Democratic lawmakers for opposing him, and upon the Dem-led years that preceded him as governor. The overriding theme? Imagine how much worse it would be without him.

Murphy is just getting started, of course, but he certainly hasn’t hesitated to present himself as the savior of a scorched landscape left by a former governor who didn’t curb high taxes, didn’t generate economic growth, and targeted people in need for budget cuts.

Murphy’s priorities moving forward certainly differ from Christie’s. But on one issue they seem to agree: We can pretend to do something about ever-rising property taxes, but there’s really no plan to do anything bold enough to make a real difference.

Consider just one slice of the problem — the Homestead Rebate program, which is designed to provide some property-tax relief to eligible homeowners, mostly seniors and lower-income residents. Christie slashed those rebates, the effect of which was to maintain substantial net property-tax growth, despite the relative success of Christie’s 2 percent cap on property-tax increases. Yes, some homeowners were paying out a bit less than they might have otherwise. But their rebates were diminishing or entirely disappearing at the same time.

In Christie’s final budget battle, lawmakers struck a late deal that cut existing Homestead funding in half to provide more school aid. It was presumably intended as a one-shot, not to establish a new rebate threshold. But Murphy’s first budget retained the lower funding amount — $143.5 million.

That has troubled some Democratic lawmakers, including new Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, who has vowed to double the amount now in the budget, restoring the earlier funding level. Murphy says he’s willing to talk — but Murphy says he’s willing to talk about a lot of things. Exactly how much is he going to overhaul over the next few weeks?

Murphy hasn’t deviated from his core progressive goals. The question has always been just how far he will go in downplaying concerns about rising taxes in pursuit of those goals. The answer is pretty darned far. The recent contract agreement with the Communication Workers of America — in which Murphy seemed less concerned about the actual costs than in reestablishing warm relations between the state and the union — was a red flag. So too is the apparently casual willingness to continue greatly reduced Homestead funding.